Late last year, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) issued a policy statement on Medicaid reform, with recommendations on ensuring quality of care for all patients with cancer, including the underserved population, while also improving provider reimbursement to ensure value-based care. ASCO’s poicy statement advocates for the expansion of Medicaid coverage to all Americans with cancer, an increase in Medicaid payment rates to reach those of Medicare, and a greater emphasis on rewarding providers for the delivery of quality care (Polite BN, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2014;32:4162-4167).
“That’s a key take-home point—that you don’t see just us out here saying we want more money to take care of Medicaid patients; we say we are ready to completely rethink the entire way this program is run,” said Blase N. Polite, MD, MPP, Chair of ASCO’s Government Relations Committee, and Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago, in a news conference in January 2015. “And increased resources in conjunction with us providing better care, and showing value, are really the key driving points of our recommendations.”
ASCO President Peter P. Yu, MD, FACP, Director of Cancer Research, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, CA, agreed that the statement stems from concern for the quality of and access to cancer care.
“We…believe that no individual diagnosed with cancer should be without insurance that guarantees access to high-quality cancer care delivered by a cancer specialist. Therefore, patients with cancer who have Medicaid should receive the same timely and high-quality care as patients with private insurance,” said Dr Yu during the news conference.
“For these and other reasons, ASCO strongly believes that the society should…make concrete, constructive recommendations for strengthening this program to ensure that our most vulnerable citizens receive needed healthcare,” Dr Yu said.
Dr Polite outlined the 5 central points in the recommendations:
“In exchange for greater flexibility and increased resources, we as physicians are ready to be held accountable for the quality of care we provide our patients,” Dr Polite emphasized. “We believe that states should be willing to do the same in exchange for the flexibility they want to administer the Medicaid program.”
Other recommendations include: